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tv   Consider This  Al Jazeera  January 25, 2014 1:00am-2:01am EST

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a patient. a day the dow may want to forget down over 300 points. i'm morgan radford, "consider this" is up next. you can always find the most up to date news on aljazeera.com. years since its uprising. are the historic made it worse. has mike huckabee made it worse? money for nothing. why the fed may have a printing problem that hurts you. hello, i'm antonio mora. welcome to "consider this". here's more on what's ahead.
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>> a violent day in egypt has left at least 19 people dead. >> the republicans don't have a war against women, they have a war for women. >> the negotiations will in fact bring peace. >> it is the most secretive white house that i have ever been involved in covering. >> you have the authority to prevent irresponsible lending practices and now our whole economy is paying its price. >> animal planet, allegedly, distorted reality, harming the animals in their network's name. >> we begin with a series of bomb attacks in cairo, a day before planned celebrations to mark the three year anniversary of the arab spring rebellion that ousted hosne
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mu mubarak. according to egypt's state media, three smaller explosions killed at least two more people and injured dozens more. a group inspired by al qaeda, the champions of jerusalem, have claimed responsibility for the securities headquarters blast. some protestors blamed the banned muslim brotherhood and demanded that mohamed mosh morsd his aids be put the death. marching for morsi and his brother hood. human rights record since the 2011 revolution i'm joined from boston by charles sennett, correspondent for two front line documentaries on egypt's ongoing crisis, one of which earned an a&m.
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is gls deanna. it's good to have you both on the show. charles i want to start with you. you've covered egypt extensively. what were your thoughts when you heard about these bombings and are things worst than they were before president morsi was deposed? >> my first thought is great sadness. to see egypt return to a cycle.violence and bombings which they knew very well from the '90s when the mubarak regime was putting down an islamic uprising, egypt is going places where i don't expect it to. three years ago, the exciting resolution, this summer i was in egypt and watching it change again in ways i thought i'd never seen with tremendous violence and really indiscriminate killing by the
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military and the police in the streets of cairo against the protestors. today though, it's something that sort of feels ominously familiar and it's very sad. i think these are sad days for egypt. >> deanna, i want to talk about egypt's president adly man sour. he said the state had ended. then he said, the state would be uprooted again and will show pity nor mercy for those abandoned, peaceful religion. i guess two questions, did the police state ever end in egypt and do you expect the police state to intensify from this point on? >> well the police state never ended in egypt. there are many hopes during the 25 january revolution which really show public anger against police brutality and years of
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abuse under hosne mubarak, that there will be accountability and justice for those who were killed by the excessive and lethal force of the police. however, three years on this has not happened. what we are seeing is that courts are acquitting police officers, accused of killing and torturing protestors, on the one hand. yet on the other hand they are are jailing one of the most persistent activates who have insisted on jail reform. >> this is jay carney. >> violence has not and will not move egypt's cycle forward. hurt egypt's prospects for political and economic stability. >> can you u.s. do anything to help break the cycle of violence surrounding these protests? >> i think the u.s. can do a lot. they're in a tough spot in egypt, damned if they do, damned if they don't.
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the egyptian government blamed the united states for siding with the regime, the united states blamed the regime for siding with the muslim brotherhood. the aid it's consistently given egypt, the close ties to the military, i think it could certainly be a voice of calm. just to reflect on the fact that january 25th is actually police day in egypt. that's a day seen as greatly ironic by most egyptians. that's why the protests began on that day. this returning to islamic militancy is very sad. to conflate things saying that the muslim brotherhood is equal to al qaeda to the 1990s is a tremendous conflation. the muslim brotherhood believed
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in democracy, it was al qaeda, and mohamed al zawahri, who said, when you are elected they will never let you rule. we can't lose that in the mix, that the muslim brotherhood was democratically elected. as bad as they had been, they weren't great at governing but they were elected, they forced a constitution that was not good to womanless women, not good to minorities. but you have to understand that you play into the hands of militants when you remove them from power when they were democratically elected and what would have to be called a military coup. that plays into the arms of militants who said, we told you, the muslim brotherhood is a western sham. >> severe suppression by
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security forces, repetitive legislation, a complacent judicial system, and trample human rights and quarterback dissent. since morsi's fall from power, that's about 200 a month. deanna, my question then, is when you put all that information out there but then you look at what's happening in egypt, it seems like there is tremendous support for the government. how do you reconcile both things? >> well, the government is using the narrative of countering terrorism to justify its violations against human rights. and they're not distinguishing between peaceful protestors and other forms of legitimate dissent calling for police accountable with violent acts.
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being charged with a variety of committing violent crimes, including belonging to a banned terrorist group. however, there is very little evidence linking individuals who are in jail with the kind of violence that we have steen today, the bombings that have rocked cairo. i can just give you an example of some of the people that i've met, as an amnesty international researcher. in egypt who have been accused of belonging to a band terrorist group. one of them is a 15-year-old boy, who was charged with promoting violence against the military for having school stationarstationery that had any slogans. i've also met high school girls who were arrested because they were carrying placards, in promotion of morsi members this sump. we are seeing a return to the
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kind of repression that egyptians have risen against and this is really the onus of this report. that three years on the aspirations of the 25 january revolution for justice and free.com have not been realized and egypt is entering into a cycle of repression and impunity. >> only have 15 seconds left. have the hopes of the arab spring and the tahrir square come to fruition? deanna? you're first. >> unless the egyptian government changes course and holds accountable for killing over 1400 people since this summer, unless they repeal legislation that criminalizes dissent, i'm afraid egyptians will continue to see the kind of violence we are seeing these days. >> charles.
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>> i think the democratic yearnings are not going away. they were expressed three years ago, in tahrir square, to topple mubarak, and last summer to topple morsi. to be part of a world in a much bigger way, i think that's going to be around and i think challenge will be for military to get out of the way of that yearning and to help a democracy continue on its own path. >> charles, deanna, i appreciate you joining us both on the eve square. >> thank you. two al jazeera journalists have had their deextension extended for 15 days. baher mohamed and peter greste have had their detentions stepped for 15 days.
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allegation against them al jazeera says are totally unfounded. two other journalists abdalla al shami and muhammed badr have both been detained for over 60 days. dramatic confrontation friday night over a massive barricade over the capitol of kiev, protestors seized government offices around the country, after late night talks from opposition leaders and president viktor yanukovych led to no agreement. opposition leadervill leader vital y
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klitschko. yanukovych dropped the treaty with the european union after closer ties in russian. for more, jennifer glasse is in kiev, glad to have you back. protestors have agreed to extend a 24 hour truce until tuesday. now buildings have been seized and we have dramatic pictures you took of the confrontation over barricades. what is going on? >> that's right, antonio. that fragile truce seems to be unraveling here in kiev. protestors use sticks panned bats and pipes and anything they can find to beat on metal, to let the police know they're there. they were throwing stones and molotov cocktails, the police trying to put out those burning fires. tensions still running high. protestors trying to keep the pressure on president
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yanukovych's government. those barricades are a row of burning tires. it is almost like a scene from les miz miserables. to let the police know they are there. >> an opposition leader v italy klitschko also says the burn union needs to get involved and be a mediator in this crisis. does a settlement seem possible at this point? >> political settlement seems very, very far away at this point antonio. presidential yanukovych offered concessions, nearly not what the opposition wants.
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he says he'll consider amnesty, he'll consider changing laws that were pushed through parliament last week and went through this week , athat basically make the protest ors, come out on sunday and what started the violence, they -- koranians are concerned that their country, a proud democracy, only 22 years old is turning into a police state and they blamed viktor yanukovych for it. he's going to have to do an awful lot to change their minds and certainly the majority of ukrainians believe the only thing he can do is resign. >> we played a video of a protestors stripped naked and beaten by police. he held a news conference and said he wanted revenge. the interior minister has apologized for the treatment the
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police gave this man, they will investigate, and they are hearing of other beatings by police. are attitudes hardening as these instances go along? >> we have heard lots of incidents by police, activists are concerned. there was a plea, activists have disappeared, they are making announcements if you have seen anybody let them know, some of the leaders of protest movements here who have carried out protests in kiev have disappeared. the police allegedly attacked a convoy of vehicles just the other night, and one of the leaders of that convoy of vehicles protesting against the government is also missing. and so there has been a litany of allegations against the police and a number of beatings. activists here are scared to go to the hospital. if you go to the hospital, and have an injury, the doctors can report it and police come and
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arrest -- and arrest somebody who has been beaten, perhaps by the policing. there was i have to share with you antonio, an interesting vignette when the truce was i still in effect. one of the riot police came over to the protestors and said, look we're asking for you to very nice reply go home. the protestor said back, we can't go home, if we go home there will never be free and fair elections. they ended up having megaphones and a very public are conversation about their respective sides. the fragile fragile truce seems to be unraveling here. >> thank you jennifer. come up. mike huckabee
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's statements are come up, and the woman in charge of the new york times. plus our associate producer hermella aregawi is tracking the networks. what's trending hermella? >> i'll explain coming up. what do you think, join the both my parents are journalists. my grandfathers are journalists. it's just something that's in the blood. there are so many stories out there that need to be told. we want to go in to the trenches, we want to go in the corners that are less looked at. everyone at al jazeera america is dedicated to tell the story the best way that it can be told. al jazeera america. we understand that every news story begins and ends with people. >> the efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents. >> we pursue that story beyond the headline, pass the spokesperson, to the streets. >> thousands of riot police deployed across the capital. >> we put all of our global resources behind every story.
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>> it is a scene of utter devastation. >> and follow it no matter where it leads - all the way to you. al jazeera america, take a new look at news. attacked. the mourners have been
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>> after the 2012 defeat of mitt romney which many party strategies thought was a winnable election, the
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republican party vowed to learn lessons. spoke at the annual gop meeting on friday about keeping that promise and staying on message. >> i said many times before that the apologize and principles of this party are sound -- that the policies and principles of this party are sound. however, as we look to grow the ranks of this party, we must be conscious of tone and choice of words when we communicate those policies effectively. >> but those choices have been possibly undermined by a presidential candidate on thursday. molly, does the republican party have to change. she joins us from her washington, d.c. newsroom. molly, great to have you with us. you start your piece with mike huckabee's comments at the republican national committee last wednesday and here is what they said. >> the democrats want to insult
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the women of america, that they are helpless, because they cannot control their libido without the help of the government. >> huckabee is a smart guy. he could have made his point language. this is the kind of rhetoric the gop is trying to avoid. >> absolutely. the republicans have known for a long time certainly since the 2012 elections that this wasn't doing them any good, particularly with the female voters where they have such a deficit. mitt romney lost the vote by double digits, single women by 40 points. talking about your creepy uncle sugar and seemingly to imply that only irresponsible women are interested in the type of thing that you would need birth control for. that's not the kind of message the party wands to send. it is not the kind of message that the american people is going to give the republican
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party a second look, as they concluded that the party was out of touch. >> rebranding on women, they also have called for that with respect to hispanics where they had serious problems in 2012 but we're seeing very little progress on immigration although rice prebis supports it. do you see one problem being bigger than the other? >> well, it is the case that if republicans want to win presidential elections they have to get better at talkin talkingo those groups of people. republicans have to change what they stand for. whether it's immigration reform which a lot of republicans do support or you know more progressive policies when it comes to the economy, or indeed on thing likes birth control and abortion and contraception.
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but what republicans are saying is, they are not going to change what they stand for, they are going to get better at talking about what they stand for. >> a substantial part of it has very conservative leanings when it comes to birth control, there are people who believe that. >> i don't think it's fair to associate that with the republican party, since it is an overwhelmingly, a view of republicans that contraception ought to be legal. the question is whether the government ought to pay for it. and that's where republicans take issue with the provision of the affordable care act and the democratic stance. i mean sure there is a fringe view in the democratic party that anyone, anywhere ought to be able to get an abortion at any time and up to the last day of pregnancy but i don't think it would be any more fair to say that that's the view of -- >> that's my point. you are going to have the
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fringes on both parties and you can't barbed the whole party on -- based on what the fringes say. without doubt, the republicans are very well positioned, even for the 2016 election, you quote political science larry sabato saying, the republican party is almost certain to keep the house and might get the senate. that seems to be the consensus along many analysts. >> there is a dissonance, that republicans are so hopelessly out of touch, that no american wants to touch them, the fact that they are going ohave a very good election in november. the real question is again, can they win a presidential election? even there, there's some interesting data. this is very preliminary, it's not a real projection. but political scientists will always tell you that the underapplying factors, things like the economy and the president's approval rating have much more of an influence on how
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people vote in a presidential pleks than any of this picayune stuff about gas or tactics or social media and data and ground game and what have you. if you take into account those factors based on a model that political scientists have used, republicans have a better than equal chance in 2016, they're actually favored. >> you've got them 64% chance of republicans in 2016. of course face can change in a minute. if you were to tell me in october 2013 that republicans were going to be good in 2014, you would have stumped me. >> it is a very good idea as you say to keep in mind how quickly things can change and to remain humble about our ability to predict any of this, you know. it's always easy for pundits to make predictions that the future is going to look the way the
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past has, that after the democrats won the 2012 election they were going to win every election from then on or that after the government shutdown, republicans were doomed forever. it's always good to keep in mind that the pendulum in politics can and does swing very quickly and often in the opposite direction it did before. >> gop chairman called on dave agemma a national committeeman from michigan to resign, after a facebook comment he made about gaze and -- gays and lesbians. there's been a big way republicans are approaching the country. >> right, republicans have mounted an enormous tactual effort to regain some of the edge that the democrats had in 12.
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they amassed field staff to do organizing, the ground game has lifl been a weak area for republicans and they're actually trying to match the democrats now. they have opened field offices in 26 states, they expect to be in all 50 states by the end of this year. they have more than 160 field staffers. so you can go to juneau or fairbanks or anchorage, alaska and find a full time staffer in a republican party office right now several months before election day. that's unprecedented for them. they hope that's going ohelp them build their grass roots communities. this is intertwined with the messaging that we talked about as well, republicans are hoping reaching out to these communities and being a part of these communities they won't be seen as quite so out of touch, they have a better idea to talk to people where they actually live. >> interesting year in politics. molly ball of atlantic, great to
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have you with us. >> thank you. >> from politics to the press, one of the most powerful women in journal has made controversial comments about the obama white house. jill abramson, the first female executive deert of the new york times in its 160 year history, talks to john siegenthaler. john great to have you on the show. >> it's great to have me on your program. thanks for inviting me. >> you're only two blocks away you could walk over here! this interview is undoubtedly very, very timely. let's listen at what she had to say about the difficulties in dealing with the obama administration. >> sure. >> i would say it's the most secretive white house i've ever been involved in covering and that includes i spent 22 years
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of my career in washington and covered presidents from president reagan, on up through now. i dealt directly with the bush white house, when they had concerns that stories we were about to run put the national security under threat. but you know, they were not pursuing criminal leak investigations. >> the obama administration of course pursuing more criminal leak allegations than any other administration in the past. you are asking her if this comes all directly from the president? >> she says she believes it does, has no idea whether it does or not but she bleefts it does. it's interesting antonio, this was a very frank, open conversation and she's very down to earth. this was the issue i believe was most important to her when we started and she was very clear. she's upset with the obama
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administration when it comes to the focus on leak investigations on journalists and that it has a chill on the new york times coverage of other stories. she believes it's a trend and she's concerned about it. >> in fact the new york times has been intimately involved on leaks. this is personal for her. one of her reporters jane ris isen is fighting having to testify over a senior white house official. >> she's had that held over her head inform years, the federal government breathing down your neck. i got to tell you as a journalist it is concerning, it makes you wonder how we can do our job when it comes to a first amendment that we believe allows us to do this without interference from the government. >> right.
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she said this white house is harder than george w. bushes. that administration in the buildup to the iraq war. >> i was not surprised by this answer. she said she did feel misled but she's not sure whether the bush administration purposefully misled her and all of us as this -- as this war continued. but one of the things that really surprised me about what she said was she talked about how there were a number of seriously flawed stories that were produced by the new york times during that time. i never heard her say that before. but you know i mean when you look back there are a number of stories where journalists felt they were misled during the iraq war and i believe she considers it one of the dark times. >> one of the more interesting answers she had was when you asked her if the times deserved to be called a liberal newspaper. let's listen to that. >> i think the new york times represents a
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kind of cosmopolitan look to the world and to this country and this city that may strike some readers aas liberal because we have paid a lot of attention to stories like gay marriage. but these are news worthy currents in our society. but it's not liberal in the sense of being doctrine doctrinaire or tied to the democratic party in any way. you know, i've run many investigative stories and political stories that have made liberal political figures furious. >> cost mo cosmopolitan outlook, she was on the editorial pages. >> look, there are plenty of people feel that whether it's the cosmopolitan page or the
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front page, new york times is liberal. news column, news stories have any political point of view, liberals complain about some stories and conservatives complain about some stories. but she is also very clear between of the wall between the editors and the news section. she says she has nothing to do with the editorials, doesn't get involved, doesn't write editorials for the paper, she leaves this tot opinion page. she says yes, the opinion page is liberal. >> she was clear that there was a chinese wall separating the editorial page. you asked her what was missing from the times. >> you thought that was funny. i was surprised, i can tell you. i didn't know what to expect. i was looking for, what is missing from the new york times? what is coming next for the new york times and her answer was, cartoons. cartoons. she said political cartoons.
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maybe cartoon strips. she wasn't sure. but it's almost kind of a retromove as newspapers move away from political cartoons or cartoons in general, to hear her say that. it kind of surprised me. >> we had a conversation with george stevens, jr. about the fact that there used to be 2,000 political cartoonists out there and now they're down to 40. >> george is a part of political history, he knows them well. >> it's hard to believe we'll see cartoon strips in the new york times some day soon. >> she felt very sure of putting political cartoons. i was wondering if you would see political cartoons on the new york times editorial page sometime in the future. sounds like something she's thinking about. >> you can catch john's full interview on "talk to al jazeera" on sunday at 7:0 7:00.
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let's check in hermella. >> smith and westson blames a decision on new california law that requires bullets to be microstamped. identifies the make and model of the gun it was fired from. company president james dobney says the requirement effective as of last may is, quote, poorly conceived, adding microstamping is unreliable, cost proiptive and most importantly is not aiding in preventing crimes. the california law center to prevent gun violence says smith and westson's statement represents the same hysterical reaction we receive every time a new safety requirement is required. good, 300 million guns is enough. and on twitter , mogadishu sheu
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says, good. and read more at al jazeera.com. following are smith and westson's lead. >> pardon me. >> under fire under abuse allegations. we'll have the man who wrote the surprising report. also, just how fattening is your food? our data dive explains why you should be able to make more informed decisions soon. and later, most americans are short on cash but the federal reserve sure isn't. is that part of the problem? saliva... >> this time, it's personal. >> you can fast-forward through this part... >> it's a test that promises to
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predict her medical future... >> my health risks just loaded, and the first one would give any woman reason to pause... nobody in my family has ever been diagnosed with breast cancer... >> techknow on al jazeera america
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you probably can't believe everything you see on reality tv. but can the unbelievable an ticks on the screen be hiding a larger view behind the scene? a
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seven month investigation, has uncovered evidence of animal neglect and abuse. the investigation also found a slew of violations of federal and state laws regarding the handling of wild animals. >> real housewives, a cost of chemistry. >> i want a normal life and i want my dog back. >> we go along with it, but ask not really in model danger. but these bits of messed up reality involve humans. this mother jones investigation is about a hit reality television show that scripted the use of animals in a way that sources say not only distorted danger. >> this is call of the wildman. >> joining us in new york is james west a senior producer at mother jones, who spent seven months investigating allegations of animal cruelty, call of the wild man, death and neglect behind the scenes at animal
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planet. we also reached out to sharp entertainment, the company that produces call of the wild man and they were unable so have someone join us this evening. let's start with one of the examples that evolved raccoons. and one of the baby raccoons ended up dying. >> these were three baby raccoons that were brought on set. they were taken by a vet as part of the script but only as the vet saw they were in dangerously perilouperilous conditions whery were taken to a specialist who actually specializes in bringing these little guys back from the brink. she could only save two. she described that as a miracle. one of them died. >> then you had another case that involved a zebra and that zebra was allegedly illegally drugged. zebras are wild animals, can be
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quite violence. sources say they see the zebra out of it, woozy falling down. later we see it is a drugged zebra they use on the ground. tackling him and covering his face and putting him in the back of a trailer. >> disturbing pictures. one was allegedly involving bats, him getting in there and getting the bats out. >> this is something that the producers admit that they brought a group of bats into a houston hair salon. >> against texas law. >> well supposedly against texas law, this is like not this person's understanding of the law. online sources have confirmed to us that at least two dead bats needed to be retrieved in the weeks after the filming at least one of them the same species
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that was being chased by turtle now. >> there are all sorts of things going on that it totally engaged most of the things he said was scripted. >> they said yes it is a tightly staged program and in some cases animals of a specific species are brought to set by trappers at the direction of the entertainment. >> this is not the first time that call of the wild and ernie brown, junior, also called the turtleman, was accused of wrongdoing. is this a culture of carelessness or just an unfortunate series of incidents? >> state of texas, when a deer was being chased on set against both state law and totalman's permit he holds in conjunction with this show.
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they were mad and concerned enough to send a letter, warning him he was breaking the law and if he did it again he play be losing his permit. evidence of a cavalier culture if you will of animal treatment on the set. >> also on movies, we did a segment last month following the investigation about the hollywood reporter about just how many cases of abuse there are in movies. is it possible to have enough animal handlers to take care of these animals? >> i think it could be possible and i think given right resources and perhaps a better system it could be possible to monitor. but as we know, this industry is -- this type of show i mean is booming. we have all sorts of different types of shows that involve animals like performers like call of the wildman. so perhaps resources are stretching thin.
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>> dan ad her haler had this to say. the company that produces call of the wildman. >> animals are cut of mayorly euthanized. this is about saving them. >> i find that a bit rich. trappers were directed by sharp to secure animals as specific species according to script. at best he is bending reality television and at worst he is masking what is really going on, on set i think. >> the usda has launched an investigation based on your report. james west thank you for coming in and speaking to us. >> been a
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pleasure. >> obesity epidemic. and fed up, why economists are turning on the federal reserve's long term impact. world. this is what we do. al jazeera america.
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the stream is uniquely
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interactive television. in fact, we depend on you, your ideas, your concerns. >> all these folks are making a whole lot of money. >> you are one of the voices of this show. >> i think you've offended everyone with that kathy. >> hold on, there's some room to offend people, i'm here. >> we have a right to know what's in our food and monsanto do not have the right to hide it from us. >> so join the conversation and make it your own. >> watch the stream. >> and join the conversation online @ajamstream. >> today's data dive weighs in on the fda's new hope to curb the obesity epidemic. the food and drug administration is changing the nutrition labels on the packaging of most of the food you buy. they say our understanding of food has changed over the last two decades and the labeling should reflect that. the white house is waiting on the fda to change, putting nutritional facts on the front of the packaging instead of just
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the back, better use of measurements because most americans don't use grams to measure, critics want to use teaspoons for things like sugar. and more logical serving sizes. a box of cereal, could be two or three times what's listed, obviously, deseeiving deceivin deceiving buyers. it's a little better with older adults, 57% of them do. meanwhile america has gotten much more heavy. the cdc reports that in 1990, no states that took part in one of its behavior risk studies had a prevalence of obesity equal to or more than 15%. by 2010 no state had a prevalence of obesity less than
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20%, not one. sounds like it's time for a weekend get away to a gym. coming up, money for nothing, a new study takes aim at the federal reserve and claims it hasn't always had our long term interests at heart. >> our journalists are the best journalists in the world. >> she's the first female executive editor of the new york times. >> there's no question that the editorial stance is a liberal point of view. >> the head of the paper of record goes on the record with talk to al jazeera. only on al jazeera america.
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>> the fertile reserve is one of the most powerful and widely misunderstood partsd of government. the documentary, money for nothing inside the federal reserve takes a critical look at the fed's history and its impact on the american economy. the film debuts on sunday. here a preview. >> what exactly is the fed's job, it does control the money supply, sets interest rates, regulates banks and supposed to ensure the safety of the financial system.
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the fed is supposed to be the guardian of financial stability, preventing chaos in financial markets. usually it can do that. in the summer of 2008 it couldn't do that and we did get chaos. >> jim bruce directed and produced the film. he joins us from los angeles. jim, good to have you with us. you do a phenomenal job of explaining the federal reserve, the economy and our last recession in the ways that everyone can understand. but you are very tough on allen greenspan and ben bernanke, they you say, bowed to the banks to cut back regulations. but they each saved us from financial crises. >> the tricky thing is you have to look at the short term and the long term. in the short term if you look at alan greenspan's response to the collapse in 21 and
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2001 and 2002, ignited a housing bubble that ultimate reply created a much bigger problem than stock market collapse. my concern is that ben bernanke might be putting us on the same path again with short term fixes of 0% interest rates, quantitative easing, helping things in the short run but in the long run, putting things at risk again. >> what bernanke did with the low interest rates, easy money, too big to fail policy on financial institutions was to in effect suspend the basic law of the free market which is survival of the fittest. >> absolutely. the great irony of alan greenspan is he was considered a free market guy and he was that way when it came to regulation. but then when you look at his policies whenever there was trouble in 1998 he bailed out a hedge fund. not a bank, not an investment bank. totally unregulated hedge fund in an effort to sort of support
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the financial sector, the financial market, get the stock market going again in the middle of a huge bubble. so yeah, i think the fed is continually i think intervened in a way that has been damaging in the long run to the financial system to the health of our banks and our investment banks. because firms began especially under greenspan to take risk, specifically because they felt the fed would bail them out. and i think now it's become very explicit this sense that the fed can rescue financial actors from their bad decisions and it shouldn't surprise anyone when people make worse and worse decisions whether they're sort of being backed upper by the fed in the way they have been. >> making riskier and riskier decisions, when talking about greenspan when as you said was a libertarian. other. on the other hand your film has a lot of praise for paul
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volker. he was named to the fed chairmanship by jimmy carter. what do you think he did that we can learn from? >> you know i think lesson we try ohold up volker as a lesson what you look for as a central banker, or any leader in a society. someone who is willing to do things that might hurt in the short term but have long term benefits. the fed has political independence. they're not elected officials. they're very much protected i think in a lot of ways from pressure, from explicit pressure from politician he. but the question is how does the fed use that influence? volker did something raised interest rates up very high, up to 20%, hard to imagine, 20% interest rates today. but what it did in the long run was, you know set the stage for a very healthy period for the
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u.s. economy . restore faith in the u.s. dollar, bring inflation down help, you know, lower the cost of living for americans. so it was a great thing. in the short run it caused a recession, it was very painful but in the long run it really helped us out. again we keep talking about short run, long run. we really call on the fed to look at the long run, to give us a financial system that's built to last, not another boom. >> you really point out that volker had the courage to do what congress didn't, the short term of what their political futures would be. he was a greater leader at that point, made decisions that had to be made. on the other hand you are not arguing that volker's policies would be what we need today or over the next six years, because that would be catastrophic. >> 20% interest rates today
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would absolutely destroy the u.s. economy. you can imagine what people would do if they had to take out a mortgage at 20%. so we're not calling for that in the film. we are calling -- there's a lot of fed officials on the film questioning zero percent interest rates, and whether that's a right thing for the economy, whether that's sustainable in the long run but again it's more of that idea of focusing on the long run. i think the average person would much rather have a financial system that lasts for generation after generation. they would prefer that if given the choice of a boom that lasts a few years, as we've seen recently or they may end up in tears with another collapse, another big drama. >> you interviewed janet yel en, yellen, chair. do you think she gets the point, from your opinion?
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>> i think she diagnoses, she misdiagnoses the remedy. pushing up stock prices and pushing up housing prices with cheap money is one way the fed can help make things better. and i worry that ultimate reply we are going osee as we may are is seen today with the stock market starting to fall again that the fed could potentially be making things worse. >> all right, jim bruce it is a really enjoyable movie and i'm going to try to make my kids watch it. money for nothing, inside the federal reserve. sunday night at 9 p.m. eastern. thank you for joining us . shoathe show may be over but the conversation continues you can catch us at @ajconsiderthis. have a good weekend.
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a dramatic rescue all caught on camera. a little girl pulled out alive from the rubble of a bombed-out building in syria. this as talk to end the civil war are just getting under way. plus a country on edge, you are looking now at live pictures from kiev where the country braces for more violence as government protests spread just outside the capital. and an emotional decision right here at home. a judge orders a hospital to remove a brain-dead pregnant woman from life

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